Tales of the Salty Bag

 Of the 3 brands that put out spicy dill pickle chips last year, Miss Vickies was the tops (IMO). So when I saw that they released a Sweet & Spicy Ketchup a few weeks ago I was intrigued to say the least. Can they better hard bite and take the tops of the throwbacks (maybe unknown throwbacks to the brands putting them out now?..but to me co-op gold will always be the spicy dill pickle progenitors with Archer Farms being the patient 0 of spicy ketchup). When I cracked this bag of MV Sweet & Spicy Ketchup I was met with a nice vinegary smelling ketchup. Good crunch, mid to mid high. There's a lot of tomato up in these maf's with some nice vinegar tang and a good hot pepper kick bringing up the rear. The heat is flavourful, but not aggressive or overwhelming and dances with the vinegar tang in your mouth (did not induce forehead sweats). Tomato sweetness, vinegar tartness and hot pepper heat, bangin'. I'd have to do a side by side with Hard Bite's Spicy Ketchup...

 About a month ago Mike Park posted on IG that he found some copies of Bruce Lee Band's Division in the Heartland 12". I always have some back catalogue Asian Man Records stuff in mind to fill out an order for cases like this (because shipping is brutal these days). In goes the order..which also included Small Crush's Running + Home 7"..and some classic Slapstick descendant albums that I for some reason or another didn't have. Both Lawrence Arms and Alkaline Trio's debut LP's, Guided Tour of Chicago and Goddamnit, then I rounded it out with the Trio's Maybe I'll Catch Fire. I'm of a certain age that I may have procured these classic albums years ago when I was a teenager and didn't have much money, may have. Either way, I was pretty stoked when the vinyl brick came in the mail this past week. The entire Lawrence Arms catalogue has been on regular rotation for years, however Alkaline Trio was sort of in my peripheral, there were a few songs...